New plans for Chicago’s Purple Hotel site don’t have their predecessor’s color, in any sense of the word, but many may view the mixed-use “town center” plaza as the antidote to the site’s lurid history. The quirky midcentury hotel in suburban Chicago seemed to escape its fate last year when architect Jackie Koo drew up plans to save the vacant hotel and its divisive color scheme.

But demolition on the Purple Hotel in Lincolnwood, IL began late last month. Organizers of the village’s end-of-summer festival apparently raised $5,000 for the local library through sales of purple brick.

(Courtesy antunovich associates)

Renderings made public this week show a “new urbanist” plaza from Antunovich Associates that do not include anything purple; instead the 11 acres at 4500 W. Touhy Ave. would be home to an open-air shopping mall, functional green space, 110 apartments, a grocery store and a new 210-room hotel. About one third of the development’s parking spaces will be hidden underground.

……..just thought about the proposal, and my comment from last week, and revisited this site: is there anyone in Chicago that thinks this is a great proposal, can’t wait for it to be built…..can’t wait to drive over and shop, and stroll….and enjoy the experience, an is willing to defend this plan?

Or, perhaps, if there was a groundswell of comments about how boring, sad and mediocre the design is, the architects, and the developer, and the town of Lincolnwood might have to work harder to make a place that would be a model of smart and inspired development that will inspire the landscape for the next 50 years….(think, (modern) OLD ORCHARD before Westfield messed it up!! or (traditional) Lake Forest – Market Square). Style matters less than quality.